A gas turbine engine generally includes a fan and a core arranged in flow communication with one another. Various accessory systems are included to ensure that the fan and/or core operate as desired. For example, a main lubrication system provides lubrication to, e.g., bearings and gear meshes within a compressor section, a turbine section, and a power gear box (if provided). In addition to the lubricating properties provided to such components, the main lubrication system removes heat from such components such that they may operate within a desired temperature range.
Other accessory systems of the gas turbine engine, such as an environmental control system, also require heat removal during operation. Accordingly, gas turbine engines typically include numerous heat exchangers, each heat exchanger dedicated to an individual accessory system of the gas turbine engine. At least certain of these individual accessory systems of the gas turbine engine require a maximum heat removal at potentially different stages of the gas turbine engine run cycle. However, as the heat exchangers are dedicated to an individual system, each heat exchanger must be sized to accommodate the maximum heat removal required for the respective accessory system. Such a configuration may result in an inefficient use of the heat exchangers. For example, such a configuration may result in certain heat exchangers operating at maximum capacity, while other heat exchangers are operated at a nominal capacity (or not at all).
Accordingly, a cooling system for a gas turbine engine capable of efficiently allocating heat exchanger resources would be beneficial. More particularly, the cooling system for a gas turbine engine capable of efficiently allocating heat exchanger resources such that less heat exchangers or smaller heat exchangers may be included in the gas turbine engine (which may also impact the size, weight, and design of associated hardware) would be particularly useful.